1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma sterilization apparatus that inactivates a floating fungus in the air (hereinafter referred to as an airborne bacillus).
2. Description of the Related Art
There are high expectations for realization of regenerative medicine, which uses an artificially cultured cell and tissue to regenerate damaged skin, corneas, organs and so on, so as to improve functional recovery of patients. The number of patients with the targeted diseases is estimated to 20,000 for corneal regeneration alone. Thus realization of this technology is desired. Participations of pharmaceutical companies are actualized, and it is expected that the regenerative medicine will make a new healthcare industry in the future.
Clinical research for regenerative medicine requires a biological clean room (hereinafter referred to as BCR), which allows aseptic manipulation. In order to maintain the indoor environment of BCR, it is necessary to establish sterilization technique, and this is an important issue. The conventional method for sterilizing inside BCR generally employs a method for sterilizing the whole indoor environment by reeking of formaldehyde inside the room. However, the formalin is harmful to human body because of as its carcinogenicity, for example. The use of formalin will be tend to be prohibited. In view of this, a sterilization technique using ozone instead of formalin has been proposed. Ozone generation techniques are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 1-242404 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-323964. Bactericidal methods using ozone are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-159821, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-211095, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-289801.